{"id":6786,"date":"2007-07-11T21:35:09","date_gmt":"2007-07-11T21:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/11\/power-adjunctin\/"},"modified":"2007-07-11T21:35:09","modified_gmt":"2007-07-11T21:35:09","slug":"power-adjunctin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/11\/power-adjunctin\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Adjuncting"},"content":{"rendered":"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>

I mentioned before that in addition to teaching one course I’m working this
\nsummer in a mentoring role for first-term online instructors at old U. I’m
\nassigned to two of them, an instructor of psychology and an instructor of
\neconomics. This involves email interchanges, sharing certain announcements and
\nteaching documents, occasional phone conversation, and three formative
\nevaluations throughout the term. In a recent phone conversation with the
\ninstructor of economics, he told me about a colleague from his M.A. program who
\nhas been power-adjuncting for a couple of years. The power adjunct, so I’m
\ntold, taught 16<\/i> online courses per term for who knows how many unwitting
\nuniversities en route to earning close to $300,000 in one year. That would make
\nthis person’s FTE, oh, between 11 and 12? Obviously, this involves torturous
\npaces and is more possible where courses are flatly transactional, even where
\nassessment follows a reductive circuit from the textbook to multiple-choice
\nexamination. Not the most sustainable career choice, but at 300K, a hyperactive part10<\/sup>-timer
\ncould work for only a couple of years before retiring comfortably (while
\nteaching only two or three courses per term for groceries).<\/p>\n

Yes, it is scandalous. Equally scandalous are the "university" systems
\nthat make the conditions for bloat-load teaching possible. There is more lore to
\nthis effect: stories of some low-lying part-timer in California who, with ties
\nto just four different institutions, teaches online and earns six figures doing
\nit (not 300k, but more like 100k). Something about it intrigues me, makes me wonder at the possibilities. No, no, not that I’d ever want to try it (300k…), but I’m anxiously waiting for
\nsomeone else <\/em>to write a monograph comparable to Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed<\/i>, only this time taking the expos\u00e9 to the
\ncredit-hour-farmers who heft the virtual load, like day-workers at online Labor Ready, but
\ninstead of getting exploited, they get rich (well, okay, exploited and<\/i>
\nrich).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u23f3 Approximate reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> mins<\/span><\/span>I mentioned before that in addition to teaching one course I’m working this summer in a mentoring role for first-term online instructors at old U. I’m assigned to two of them, an instructor of psychology and an instructor of economics. This involves email interchanges, sharing certain announcements and teaching documents, occasional phone conversation, and three…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academe"],"yoast_head":"\nPower Adjuncting - Earth Wide Moth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.earthwidemoth.com\/blog\/2007\/07\/11\/power-adjunctin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Power Adjuncting - Earth Wide Moth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u23f3 Approximate reading time: 2 minsI mentioned before that in addition to teaching one course I’m working this summer in a mentoring role for first-term online instructors at old U. 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